Microelectromechanical systems or MEMS devices include micromachined substrates integrated with electronic microcircuits. Such devices may form, for example, microsensors or microactuators which operate based on, for example, electromagnetic, electrostrictive, thermoelectric, piezoelectric, or piezoresistive effects. MEMS devices have been formed on insulators or other substrates using micro-electronic techniques such as photolithography, vapor deposition, and etching.
An example of a MEMS device includes a micro-mirror device. The micro-mirror device can be operated as a light modulator for amplitude and/or phase modulation of incident light. One application of a micro-mirror device is in a display system. As such, multiple micro-mirror devices are arranged in an array such that each micro-mirror device provides one cell or pixel of the display. A conventional micro-mirror device includes an electrostatically actuated mirror supported for rotation about an axis of the mirror. As such, rotation of the mirror about the axis may be used to modulate incident light by directing the incident light in different directions.
Conventional techniques for forming a micro-mirror device include photolithography, vapor deposition, and etching. Thus, to reduce cost of the micro-mirror device, it is desirable to minimize the number of processing steps and/or reduce processing time. In addition, to minimize processing limitations, such as processing temperatures, it is also desirable to increase the number of materials which are suitable for use while forming the micro-mirror device.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.